What technical features do you expect to find in a FPS?
What technical features do you expect to find in a FPS?
As with many people here on the Irrlicht forum, I'm in the process of developing an FPS game. Although the nature of the game is very uncommon (most FPS games rely on guns, only a handful don't, and mine is in that handful that doesn't), I am interested in knowing what features the average player looks for in an FPS.
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Well, I'll explain a little bit of how it works right now.
Attacking in the game relies on magic rings that the character wears on his finger. There are six rings total, each with varying strength, speed, number of shots, and charge use. "Ammo" in this game is magic charges, and there's but one pool of charges, so all six rings use the same "ammo". The ring you start out with is White, and is the only ring that doesn't require any charges to fire with (so it's always available for attacking). It's rather limited though...shots are a bit slow and you can only fire off one at a time. Its attack power is low also. However, it has a couple of special features: if you have less than 100 charges, they will recharge when wearing this ring, and also, you can do a Magic Shield which makes you completely invincible for a time. The Magic Shield requires a lot of charges though (75 on Normal mode, 150 on Hard mode, 225 on Insane mode). Also, you can't switch rings while using the Magic Shield or it will fail, plus there are a few places where it won't work at all. The other five rings use charges, allow multiple shots, and are much stronger. The number of charges required depends on the difficulty level.
Enemies in the game are pretty straightforward...some come right after you and some can attack from a distance. The AI isn't tremendously bright but the enemies are tough so it doesn't need to be.
Of course, the game has all of the usual trappings of the FPS...acid baths, lava pits, jumping around like a maniac, secret doors and switches, etc. The original game had little use for jumping really, mainly to jump over acid/lava areas, but the new 3D version will have a lot of your typical FPS uses for it. However, the game is not really "mission-based" like many FPS games...it's more of a survival game. Each area does have a "secret objective" though...completing the objective alters the storyline and sometimes opens up new areas. I spent a lot of time developing the storyline for the game so there are storyline segments between each "Act", as I call them.
One thing I can say though is this...the original game wiped the walls with the best FPS players I could find, even on the lowest difficulty setting. It IS a challenging game and does not suffer fools gladly.
Oh yeah, btw...my avatar on this forum is the main character of the game.
Attacking in the game relies on magic rings that the character wears on his finger. There are six rings total, each with varying strength, speed, number of shots, and charge use. "Ammo" in this game is magic charges, and there's but one pool of charges, so all six rings use the same "ammo". The ring you start out with is White, and is the only ring that doesn't require any charges to fire with (so it's always available for attacking). It's rather limited though...shots are a bit slow and you can only fire off one at a time. Its attack power is low also. However, it has a couple of special features: if you have less than 100 charges, they will recharge when wearing this ring, and also, you can do a Magic Shield which makes you completely invincible for a time. The Magic Shield requires a lot of charges though (75 on Normal mode, 150 on Hard mode, 225 on Insane mode). Also, you can't switch rings while using the Magic Shield or it will fail, plus there are a few places where it won't work at all. The other five rings use charges, allow multiple shots, and are much stronger. The number of charges required depends on the difficulty level.
Enemies in the game are pretty straightforward...some come right after you and some can attack from a distance. The AI isn't tremendously bright but the enemies are tough so it doesn't need to be.
Of course, the game has all of the usual trappings of the FPS...acid baths, lava pits, jumping around like a maniac, secret doors and switches, etc. The original game had little use for jumping really, mainly to jump over acid/lava areas, but the new 3D version will have a lot of your typical FPS uses for it. However, the game is not really "mission-based" like many FPS games...it's more of a survival game. Each area does have a "secret objective" though...completing the objective alters the storyline and sometimes opens up new areas. I spent a lot of time developing the storyline for the game so there are storyline segments between each "Act", as I call them.
One thing I can say though is this...the original game wiped the walls with the best FPS players I could find, even on the lowest difficulty setting. It IS a challenging game and does not suffer fools gladly.
Oh yeah, btw...my avatar on this forum is the main character of the game.
We all live in a yellow subroutine.
(\__/)
(='.'=) Copy bunny into your signature to
(")_(") help him gain world domination.
(\__/)
(='.'=) Copy bunny into your signature to
(")_(") help him gain world domination.
some weird/wasted/full of personality character like the many appearing by fan artists in the quake2 and 3 years...
I miss 'em, today is all well shaved special Ops guys...
I miss 'em, today is all well shaved special Ops guys...
Finally making games again!
http://www.konekogames.com
http://www.konekogames.com
some cool physics system? bang! your enemies fly away... bang! the tree falls and hit your enemies.
My company: http://www.kloena.com
My blog: http://www.zhieng.com
My co-working space: http://www.deskspace.info
My blog: http://www.zhieng.com
My co-working space: http://www.deskspace.info
Play Halflife again and remember what made you scared and what made you want to keep playing and survive at all costs
Aside from this advice I would recommend a real physics library as a must. You can try some cool stuff like cloth animation/physics (Would go nice with magic-theme) and lots of crazy shader effects.
Unfortunately for shadows, without cubemaps point-litted shadowmaps are not possible. So maybe you can integrate cubmap + 3d texcoord support
... Else you can use only spotlights + directional. Or you can just use stencil shadows. (John carmack ftw..)
Ok good luck.
Cheers
Aside from this advice I would recommend a real physics library as a must. You can try some cool stuff like cloth animation/physics (Would go nice with magic-theme) and lots of crazy shader effects.
Unfortunately for shadows, without cubemaps point-litted shadowmaps are not possible. So maybe you can integrate cubmap + 3d texcoord support
... Else you can use only spotlights + directional. Or you can just use stencil shadows. (John carmack ftw..)Ok good luck.
Cheers
ShadowMapping for Irrlicht!: Get it here
Need help? Come on the IRC!: #irrlicht on irc://irc.freenode.net
Need help? Come on the IRC!: #irrlicht on irc://irc.freenode.net
but something decent that doesn't shave 50fps off of the engine would be good...